A new income calculator from the Pew Research Center will tell Americans if they're considered part of the lower, middle or upper class. The free, interactive feature uses your household income before taxes, number of people within the household and where you live to determine your "income tier."

According to USA Today, the Pew calculator uses government data as recent as 2016 to compare results.

"Middle income" is defined as households whose income is anywhere from two-thirds to double the national median. In 2016, that figure ranges from $45,000 to $135,600 for a family of three; the average household size was 2.5 people that year.

In Syracuse, a couple with no children and earning $120,000 is considered upper class, according to Pew. The same couple would be considered middle class in New York City, where the cost of living is much higher.

The Pew income calculator also lets users compare themselves to other demographics by filling out their age, education, race/ethnicity and marital status. U.S. couples who are married, for example, are more likely to be in the upper class than single Americans.

Syracuse also differs from national figures slightly. According to Pew, 57 percent of Syracuse metro area residents are considered middle class, compared to 26 percent in the lower income tier and 16 percent in the upper income tier; in the rest of the U.S., there are fewer people in the middle class (52 percent) and more in the other tiers (19 percent upper class, 29 percent lower).

According to USA Today, the median middle class household in 2016 was $78,442, up from $74,015 in 2010 -- just a 6 percent increase. Wealthier Americans saw a median increase of 9 percent over the same time period while poorer households saw a 5 percent gain.

"The wealth gaps between upper-income families and lower- and middle-income families in 2016 were at the highest levels recorded," Rakesh Kochhar wrote for Pew. "Although the wealth of upper-income families has more than recovered from the losses experienced during the Great Recession, the wealth of lower- and middle-income families in 2016 was comparable to 1989 levels. Thus, even as the American middle class appears not to be shrinking (for now), it continues to fall further behind upper-income households financially, mirroring the long-running rise in income inequality in the U.S. overall."